The skills have now carried him to a whole new level. The Chicago-area native and former owner of his own excavation and demolition company has gained a new opportunity with a spot on Saturday’s UFC 123 fight card, which continues a journey that started slow but has flourished with intense time in the gym.

Lullo (8-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is set to meet highly touted Edson Barboza (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in an unaired, preliminary-card bout. The newest opportunity has happened so quickly, and he has been asked so much about it, that during a conversation earlier this week Lullo had to pause several times to recollect his thoughts.

After enough interviews, the stories can run together a little bit. But the bottom line is this: Lullo grew up in a suburb of Chicago golfing and playing pool, both very well. He tried boxing, liked it, knew a friend who had a buddy who owned a gym and started training. It helped that one of the friends he met while playing golf for Lincoln (Ill.) College was Matt Hughes, another athlete there.

Then he got serious quickly, and he took a visit from his manager last week to get some surprising news.

“He asked what I was doing the next Saturday,” Lullo said. “I said, ‘I’m not exactly sure; there are fights.’ He said, ‘We’re gonna go.’ I said, ‘Yeah, we can go. It’s not too far away. That sounds fun.’

He grew up (and still lives in) Addison, Ill., near his large family. He got into golf early, and he progressed quickly. But it was in pool where he competed as the higher level and appeared in national tournaments as part of a team.

Here’s how he describes the atmosphere as one such tournament:

“It’s a huge auditorium,” Lullo said of being in Las Vegas at the event. “There are 800 tables, five people on a team. That’s a lot of people. The first team to get to three ahead wins. One year, we were 17th, and it’s people from all over the country.”

Lullo learned quickly to rely on his skills as much as possible.

“One of the overwhelming things was to see how much different equipment was out there,” he said. “There are cues that cost $100,000. But the cue doesn’t change the game; it doesn’t change anything.

“You have to figure out the moves and the deflections, and you have to think.”

Speaking of mental games, Lullo also excelled at golf – to the point he was a college player in Illinois and competed against much bigger schools. But near the end of that career, he wanted a new challenge, and he had dabbled in boxing.

Then he found a gym home about five years ago because a friend knew and a friend, and his days of regular golf and pool were done.

Staying the course

Here are some stats on dedication:

“After the first month there, I trained once a day, seven days a week, for two years,” Lullo said. “I think in the first two years I missed 14 days. I would go five months without missing a day.”

The mental toughness he learned in individual sports paid off in his physical training, which culminated in his 3-2 amateur record before he turned professional in August 2008 and lost his first two fights.

Meanwhile, he was letting his excavation and demolition business – the one in which his father had invested and partnered with him – slip a bit. But that’s because he was so committed to his training and the sport in which he so badly wanted to be good.

Recognizing he hadn’t yet won his first fight, Lullo rededicated himself to training and improving, and the results speak for themselves. He has won eight consecutive fights, including the past five by submission.

But other parts of his life, specifically his business, suffered.

“I started leaving work to go train, and after awhile, it was work, then train, then work, then train,” Lullo said. “After awhile it was too much, and my dad said, ‘Take it easy with the gym stuff. I invested a lot of money here.’

“My parents have been so supportive. They’ve been great. I still have all that equipment paid for, too. It’s all polished and ready to go.”

But, with Lullo’s streak, it’s not in danger of being used any time soon. He has proven MMA tests its participants on judgment and calculation because of his past experiences in competition.

Now he’s ready for his next challenge and hopes to show complete dedication can be the answer.

“If I lose, it’s going to be because the guy’s better than me, not because I make mistakes or quit,” Lullo said. “I’ve had to do enough things that are mentally challenging that I’m ready for that. I won’t go out with anything I did wrong.”

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features
writer for MMAjunkie.com. His weekly “Fight Path” column focuses on the
circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter
with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.